A NEW Government-backed website providing information on the EU will be established on a permanent basis and not solely as a vehicle for the second referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, the Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has said.
Mr Martin yesterday launched the website, www.eumatters.ie, as part of a wider public information programme about the EU, which has been allocated a budget of almost €1 million, and will include a newspaper and broadcast advertising campaign. The website will cost €45,000, said Mr Martin.
At the launch of the website in Government buildings, Mr Martin denied that the intention was to encourage a Yes vote in the Lisbon referendum. He said that the site would continue into the future.
“I would invite people to look at the website and its content and information. We want it to become the definitive source of information about the EU.
“Nobody can object to the provision of information. It’s reasonable and important that we do it in a way that is effective and can attract the interest of people,” he said.
The project is a response to research conducted by polling company Millward Brown in the wake of the first Lisbon referendum which showed that many people did not have sufficient knowledge about the EU institutions. “We need new and innovative ways of conveying the message. It needs to be free of bureaucratic jargon,” he said. The website include a “jargon buster” which will explain in simple language some of the more convoluted terms.
